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Chess

Nowadays, the predominant form of organized chess competition is the tournament, in which the pairings follow the round robin or all-play-all method, as in baseball, or some delimitation of it, as in the Swiss system. But the original form was that of the match, a one-on-one challenge. Indeed, it was not until the International Tournament of 1851, held at the Crystal Palace of the London Exhibition, that tournament play entered the chess scene.

The match format is still used in the world championship as well as in exhibitions of all sorts around the world. One such confrontation took place in December in Sao Paulo, Brazil, between Judit Polgar, the highest-ranked woman in the world, and Gilberto Milos, the champion of the host country. Four games were played, at the fairly quick time limit of 30 moves an hour plus a half-hour for the rest of the game. Polgar won two, drew one and lost one to take the $12,000 prize. Milos was paid $8,000.

The last and deciding encounter saw Polgar smash through with a nice counterattack.

Transposing with 6 . . . e6 to a Scheveningen Variation is currently more popular than sticking to the Najdorf with 6 . . . e5, probably because the latter makes it harder for Black to keep a white knight from using the d5 square as an outpost. On the other hand, 6 . . . e6 leaves White with greater space control in the center and hence with stronger chances for a direct attack. Another point: Polgar may enjoy encouraging the opponent's attack to give her greater opportunity for a punishing counterattack.

The best method for anticipating early hostilities may be Polgar's 7 . . . b5 and 8 . . . Bb7, producing pressure against the enemy center.

The thrust with 10 g4 was the most aggressive way to implement Milos's ambitions, but Polgar met it sharply with 10 . . . h6. The point was that 11 g5 turns over the e5 square to a black knight after 11 . . . hg 12 fg Ne5 13 Qg2 Nfd7.

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Perhaps Polgar could have taken a pawn with 16 . . . Ne4, but her 16 . . . h5!, opening a front on the kingside, was much more powerful. Milos could have tried 17 Bg5, but after 17 . . . hg 18 Qg2 Rg8 19 Bf6 Bf6, Polgar would have had a considerable positional superiority.